When writting a book and trying to get it published will it make that much of a diffrence if the punctuation, Grammer and Spelling is not up to scratch? Mine is awful and i am in the process of doing a course to try and improve it but i was wondering, if the story is good will it make a publisher turn there nose up and not even bother with the story if all the above is poor?
Yes - if there are basic flaws like this, the publisher or agent will never know that the story is good, because they'll never read that far. They receive far too many manuscripts to take the time to read all of all of them - I've read that many manuscripts are rejected based on the first paragraph. ChickenFreak
yes, they are!... and if your query is as flawed as your post, no one will even request the ms... if your query is corrected enough to pass muster and the ms is that full of mistakes, it will be tossed at first glance, regardless of how good the story might be...
The positive side is that you say you are working on improving your SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar). Keep at it! It may seem overwhelming right now, but you can master it if you are diligent. It's important. You cannot be a successful writer without those basic skills, any more than you can be a successful cabinet maker if you cannot drive a screw in cleanly or sand and finish the surfaces properly.
Yes, it will make a big difference, Huskies. An editor or agent likely won't even read it if the grammar and spelling are that bad, so they'll never find out whether you are telling a good story or not. And with good reason - these people have A LOT of submissions to read. Why bother reading those from writers who can't be bothered to learn the basic aspects of the written language?
